Seeing the group win, Gerinel crouches down and offers his hand to Hei-wa to pull him up to the walkway.
With the threat now dealt with, Trinity climbs down through the opening and drops into the water. From there, she moves over to the walkway and attempts to climb up.
After struggling with the process, she finds the climb a bit more difficult than she originally thought. Dead set on getting up on the walkway, she gives it a second attempt.
With Hei-wa and Odver's assistance Trinity is able to clamber up onto the walkway on her second attempt.
Watching Trinity jump down and clamber onto the walkway, Yelena grimaces but jumps as well. "I am never going to get this smell out of my clothes..." Her desperation to get out of the water gives her strength and she quickly heaves herself onto the walkway.
Once Hei-wa gets up as well, she offers him a healing potion. "Here. Take care of that leg before it gets infected."
Hei-wa treads water and looks over at Odver in the expanding pool of shark’s blood, ”I’ll try to avoid angering you. What a strike.” He smiles and paddles over to the walkway. With an initial slip on the wet boards he manages to pull himself from the water.
At Yelena’s offer, the Tian indicates she should hold onto her potion as he pulls the bottle he received earlier. He quaffs the potion and the majority of his wounds knit.
Hei-wa stays to help some others get out of the water before…
Moving up to the door and listening.
Stunning Fist (1):
Effects:
x = none
With everyone's helping each other you are all soon standing on the walkway in front of a small door. The 2 1/2 foot opening makes it somewhat difficult for any medium size creature to enter.
Hei-wa moves up to the door and kneels down, pressing his ear to the wood he can hear nothing coming from beyond.
Hei-wa signals Trinity to join him at the door where he whispers, ”Do you see anything that looks like a trap here?”
Stunning Fist (1):
Effects:
x = none
While taking a closer look at the door, Trinity begins helping Hei-wa with his inspection. Once she feels the door is free of traps, she looks over at Hei-wa and shrugs. "Looks clear to me"
Yelena shifts uncomfortably from foot to foot, throwing glances over her shoulder at the silent ship. They were assuming Lamm was in his den, but if he snuck up behind them now...
She shivers from both fear and cold. "Let's get this over with so we can get the children home."
While Yelena fidgets back and forth nervously Hei-wa and Trinity can find no nasty surprises waiting for them when they open the door. Turning the knob they find that the tiny door is locked.
Hei-wa glances at Trinity in mock outrage. "Locked? It's like he doesn't trust people."
Trinity smiles at Hei-wa's ironic joke as she pulls out a set of delicate tools. "I might be able to open this lock. Let me give it a go."
After hearing a small click, she seems unsure if she was successful or not. "Give it a try."
Odver listens with the others at the door, and fishes out a set of lockpicks himself to try the lock on the small door. Why ever wouldn't he trust people? I'm truly shocked he's not got a red carpet out for all to visit...
Both Trinity and Odver take turns trying to unlock the door to no avail.
"This lock looks to be a little more complex than I originally thought. Give me a couple minutes and I should be able to bypass it so we can enter quietly."
With a satisfying click Trinity unlocks the door.
After opening the lock, Trinity steps back. "That should do it."
Hei-wa pops open the door and tries to dive into the room before anyone inside is aware he's doing it.
Stunning Fist (1):
Effects:
x = none
Hei-wa dives through the door like a shot and lands lithely on his feet taking a quick look around he finds that the air in this large room is chilly and stinks of the river, thanks to a huge opening in the floor that drops away to the river shore three feet below. Several pilings emerge from the waters to support the roof eight feet above the floor, with mossy ropes slung between them. In two places, rusty manacles hang from the ropes over the water. Two five-foot-wide walkways cross the hole to the other side of the chamber, where a collection of old cabinets, lockboxes, and piles of clutter are strewn about. Chipped porcelain plates, a cracked goblet, badly rusted silverware, an old wooden shield with a crossbow bolt embedded in it, the odd dinged helm, and other “treasures” litter the floor of this side of the chamber. Three tables heaped with clutter stand amid this mess. In the southwest corner, a wooden door provides access to a walled-off section.
Standing near the tables is the object of everyone's quest, Gaedren Lamm. A former shell of what he once was Lamm's frame is bent and twisted with age, his jaundiced eyes and speckled skin radiate an aura of frailty of old age rather than the strength of his use. As he paces back and forth in front of the tables he steps with a noticeable limp in his left leg as he turns to face his intruders. "Come in. I've been expecting you" he says in a shallow raspy voice as he aims a loaded hand crossbow at the Monk "I may not know who you are, but I've been waiting for you ever since I heard the commotion upstairs. I take it the Yargin and the others are dead? Pity, really, they were quite useful. It seems as though I have some openings in my organization now, Would be interested? all this and more could be yours." he says as his hands wave at the items stacked on the tables. "No? again it's a pity as you and yours seem quite resourceful in finding, and getting, to me here. We could have made wonderful partners."
So saying he fires the hand crossbow, not at Hei-wa but into the pool of water where a large creature, an alligator, rears out of the water enraged by the sudden pain.
Initiative:
Trinity begins an inspirational song, which seems to evolve around the situation.
Yeah, here comes Hei-wa
Now, Hei-wa was a Tain
He lived by himself in the swamp
He hunted alligators for a living
He'd just knock them in the head with a stump
The Taldan law gon' get you Hei-wa
It ain't legal hunting gators down in the swamp
Taldan law going to git you
You should have thought about that from the jump
Now everybody blamed his old man
For making him mean as a snake
When Hei-wa was a boy
His daddy would use him for bait
Tied a rope around his waist
And threw him in the swamp
Alligator man in the bayou
With nothing more than a stump
Now the folks around south Cassomir
Said Hei-wa was a hell of a man
He could trap the biggest, the meanest gator
While only using one hand
That's all he has left now
Nothing more than a stump
Hiseft arm now gone, where the gator decided to chomp
Gerinel sneers as they enter the room and Gaedren taunts them.
"You didn't seem to care for my skills or resourcefulness when you tried to beat me to death in the street, old man. What was it you said? "F*ck you and those flighty blighters what filled your head with stupid dreams. This life is the best an orphaned moth brat like you could ever hope for. No one's coming to f*cking save you." That's where you were wrong, Gaedren. When those people happened upon us and you ran like the cowardly wretch you are, Desna saved me! And she brought us together, all the others you've harmed over the years, to find you here: a feeble and pathetic mess, wallowing in garbage. Your luck's finally run out. I can't believe I was ever afraid of you."
Gaedren rheumy eyes slightly lose focus as he hears Trinity's voice from outside the shack "I remember that voice. I remember I killed her many years ago so it cannot be her. Pretty little thing until she got uppity, then she had to go." Lamm points his crossbow at Heiwa and shoots, he grins as his bolt strikes home "Oh, well I killed her once I can do it again. Pity, I bet she's grown up nicely" he says with a leer in his eyes.
As Gerinel enters the room he smiles "Another brat back from the dead, I must be slipping in my old age. Geri, is that you? Those priests filled your head with dreams, and dreams give people hope. Hope is dangerous on the streets when everyone is just waiting to pounce upon the unwary. I was doing you a favor by putting you out of your misery before you got yourself killed by someone else"
"Well, of the sins of my past have come back to take me, then come and get me because I'm not going quietly"
Hei-wa stares at the crossbow bolt in his shoulder… then charges before the gator can get set to attack and the old man can reload. He can only hope the walkway isn’t trapped as he sprints up to the old man and tries to deliver a stunning hooking heel kick to his head.
Stunning Fist (1): x
Effects:
x = none
Yelena crawls into the room, eyes going wide as she's greeted by the sight of a very large crocodile. "Oh s!%!."
Gerinel grimaces at the sight of Gobblegut.
"He's gotten a lot bigger since I last saw him," he comments to Yelena.
He says a small prayer to Desna to give him the fortune he'd need to win this fight.
Odver moves into the room to a spot where he can stab at the crocodile with his ranseur.
Lamm's eyes lose focus and his crossbow slips from numbed fingers as Hei-wa's kick rings his bell.
Gobbleguts swims over to the side of the pool and attempts to surge out of the water to bite Odver, but even with his powerful tail he is unable to get enough height out of his pen to reach him.
Yelena runs along the edge of the walkway, hoping Gobbleguts won’t follow. Once she rounds the corner she whirls around. ”I’ll make the alligator easier to hit. The quicker we kill it, the quicker we can help Hei-wa with Lamm!”
Hei-wa presses into the corner next to Lamm and fires a flurry of punches at the dazed criminal.
Stunning Fist (1): x
Finishing the casting of the spell, Gerinel moves to the side, hoping to divert Gobblegut's attention so he and Odver can tag-team the big critter.
Odver drives his polearm forward into the crocodile, attempting to poke a massive hole in the creature before it can get up to the group.
Seeing the large alligator leap out at the group, leaves Trinity with a startled expression. While continuing with her performance, she retrieves her whip from her side, and then attempts to whip it through the door at the alligator.
Trinity continues to bolster everyone's morale with her singing as she crouches down outside the door she determines that attacking with her whip would be impossible from this angle.
Lamm's eyes regain focus as he wipes the blood from his face "That's quite some kick you got there, son. It'd be a pity to waste it. Come work for me, help me get rid of these fools and I can make you rich."
Hei-wa rejects Lamm's offer and slams him with his fists twice in quick succession causing the old man to reel backwards.
Yelena's sudden movement catches the attention of the crocodile and it attempts to attack her as it lunges out of it's pool. It's jaws snap shut on the young Witch's legs as it attempts to drag her into the pool.
Odver lands a wicked stab on Gobbleguts flank as it attacks Yelena, causing the reptile to forgo it's attempt and focus it's attention on the cause of it's pain.
Gerinel calls on Desna's aid to protect him as he moves into combat the Gobbleguts and he can feel her protective embrace as her power cocoons him in a defensive sheath.
Gobblegut's cold eyes focus unnervingly on Odver as it, in it's hatred, springs up at him. Odver gasps in pain as the creature's sharp teeth pierce his armored thigh as it draws him into the water with it.
Odver takes a huge gulp of air as the croc pulls him into the water, knowing its high-stakes, he slams his spiked gauntlet down into the croc's eye.
Seeing the entry way become an attack point for the alligator, Trinity simply acknowledges the danger and then continues to inspire her team with the alligator song from her current position.
Trinity continues inspiring everyone with her music as Lamm begins to raise his arms in surrender only to twist his wrist at the last second and a dagger drops into his hand as he slices at Hei-wa. The Tian Monk expecting some subterfuge reacts swiftly, punching Lamm in the solar plexus as he attacks
Despite Hei-wa's punch, Lamm manages to scratch Hei-wa's arm with his blade
Odver punches at Gobbleguts as the beast draws him into it's pool but the strike goes awry as he is dragged off his feet and into the water below.
Yelena continues to bleed from her wounded leg as she lies unconscious on the floor.
Gerinel cries out as he sees Yelena fall. He rushes over to her and crouches down, whispering prayers to Desna under his breath as he lays a hand on her wound.
"Sometimes we have to make our own luck. Come on, Victor still needs you...we still need you!
Gobbleguts attempts to launch himself at Gerinel as he rushes to Yelena's aid but is unable to reach him and it's jaws snap shut on empty air.
Yelena blinks awake. Strange. I don't remember falling asleep... Then everything comes back to her in a rush and she shoves herself back onto her feet. She gives Gerinel a nod of thanks even as she focuses her attention back on Gobbleguts.
Hei-wa tries to keep the pressure up with a series of kicks to the old thief’s jewels and kneecap.
Stunning Fist (1): x
Effects:
Inspire = +1 to attack, damage, and saves vs. fear
Odver continues to hold his ransuer before him defensively until he can take another step to the left and gain some room to work. In the meantime he draws a kukri from his belt, chopping down on the huge beast. We're coming Hei-wa, just a moment longer....